San Jose Grand Prix back on right trackNow that the San Jose Grand Prix has stopped being a political football, Don Listwin wants to get back to his No. 1 goal: Raising money to fund research for the early detection of cancer.

When the Champ Car race received a $4 million city subsidy more than a year ago, it became campaign fodder in San Jose's mayoral race and overshadowed everything written about Listwin's Canary Foundation, the July 27-29 race's main sponsor.

"That message got lost last year through a series of events that were unfortunate from our perspective," the former Cisco executive told supporters Tuesday at A.P. Stump's in San Jose.

The foundation is picking up steam, though. Listwin said $1 million was raised in 2005, and that increased to more than $3 million in 2006. The foundation is on track, he said, to raise more than $6 million this year.

Although a lot of that money comes from the exposure the race gives to the foundation - it's easy to find the canary-yellow race car at most community events - Listwin wants people to know his focus is on putting money toward cancer detection research, not the fast cars.

"The Grand Prix's here to support Canary," he said. "Not the other way around."

But the Canary Foundation has some fun events in store for race week, including a "Light the Way for Early Detection" track walk July 25 and the Cabana gala, featuring 1980s rock band Heart, July 28.

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